Sorting
by Cordelia McGonagall
Summary: Padma wishes things could return to the way they were before Hogwarts and Lavender Brown. This was written for The Teachers' Lounge Ultimate Iron Fic challenge. This frenemy-flavored first round puts me up against Wrexscar - you should check out his Lisa Turpin, because she is amazing. (Edit: I forgot a disclaimer - I own nothing, I owe JKR all, and she owes me a good, swift kick.)


The Sorting Hat had shuffled the deck before it had dealt, changing everything. At home, Padma had been the clever one, the promising one, the one who tidied and planned and pleased. Parvati had been the forgetful, the silly, the one who had made the family late for a funeral searching for a favourite pair of rainbow pants. Her mother would lament, _"Could you please do as Padma does?"_ Parvati would laugh it off, but Padma took it all to heart, feeling that she was safely sorted at birth as a Patil, in the only house that counted, with a twin orbiting closely around her who reflected Padma's shining successes to the only people who mattered. Three years had turned this upside down, so it should not have been a shock when Pavak, her hero brother only interesting to the Ravenclaws for being a Muggle, grabbed Padma for a hug, and she saw a flash of three _rakhi_ on his wrist instead of the proper two bracelets _._ The gold threads flashed in the weak sun filtering into King's Cross. The beaded plaits were supposed to be sacred. They were supposed to be from sisters.

Pavak saw her face. "Ah, Padma. Lav was at the house the whole summer. I know I only have two sisters. Thank goodess." He smirked, and she smiled sadly, missing the way it had been - Padma the good, following closely in her brother's footsteps. "Listen," Pavak pulled her away from the fussing of their parents. "This year, try to do as Parvati does."

Padma looked at him, her eyes wide, her mouth open to a small _o._

Her brother frowned. "Don't look at me like that. I know you got top marks in whatever it is you are doing there. I'm proud. But," Pavak looked down the platform at his new girlfriend from university who was giving the family space to fuss, "Mum and Dad aren't going to tell you to be happy. Spend some time with Lavender and Parvati. Those Gryffindors sound brilliant. Have some fun, okay?" Pavak ducked his head to look at Padma, who had let her blurring gaze wander to a black spot of chewing gum on the concrete.

Her mother let go of Parvati and swooped over to Padma. "Pavak! Are you worrying her about her marks? Padma, do get more involved this year. Parvati and Lavender were telling us so many things about the clubs and societies. And Divination! They tell us it's like physics. Such bright girls! Do make an effort, like Parvati, yes?"

Padma blinked away the tears and looked up to see Parvati and Lavender fade into the brick wall. They did not wait for her.

Parvati did not wait for her on the platform, and she didn't wait to join her in a carriage, or meet her at breakfast. Hogwarts had taken Padma's lone moon and sent it out of orbit, and now Parvati had a pull of her own. Padma couldn't get used to the dull ache of seeing her sister less frequently; the greetings in shared classes or the corridors were intimate or aloof depending on Parvati's need.

Still wanting to restore order, Padma had done what was asked of her. She filled her planner with more than revision tables. In late November, she caught Justin staring at her in Potions, and her thrill at seeing his shy grin was tempered with the abrupt thought of the girl whom she wanted to tell first, across the Great Hall. She smiled instead across the table at Mandy Brocklehurst, the friend who would encourage her happiness.

As Mandy and Padma whispered over each other's sentences at lunch, parsing this newest development in Potions, Lisa Turpin giggled, "You two are like twins! Mandy Padma. Panda."

Mandy held up a finger to pause her theory about Justin's affections and rolled her eyes. "Lisa, Padma has a twin already."

Lisa looked over her shoulder at Parvati and Lavender giggling at Seamus Finnegan, who was gesturing wildly with his fork while Neville Longbottom ducked to save an eye.

"You wouldn't know it," Lisa murmured. Does Parvati even know how to get to Ravenclaw tower?

Padma felt suddenly defensive. "She's been."

"When?"

"She was missing a sock and thought I'd have it." Padma listened to this as it came out of her mouth, and it embarrassed her. She ignored the look Lisa and Mandy gave each other.

Padma was starting to wonder if she'd be going to the Yule Ball alone when Justin stopped her in a crowded corridor. "It snowed this morning. It's beautiful out. Do you, um, want to walk with me to Care of Magical Creatures this afternoon?" He looked hopeful, with his hands jammed in his pockets, and Padma knew she would have a date before dinner. She nodded happily, and they both exhaled and let themselves be swept away in the current of classmates.

Parvati stopped her just as she entered the Great Hall for lunch.

"Do you have a date yet?" Parvati asked the question, her tone accusatory.

"No, but I..."

"You do now. Ron Weasley. I've been asked by Harry. He wants us to double date."

Padma thought of Justin's hazel eyes. "But..."

Parvati leaned in close, linking her arm with her sister's. "Lavender's going with Seamus. Do you know how he's been to Harry? Awful. I think it will make Mum and Dad happy to know we are going together, don't you think? Pavak will want pictures."

Padma let Justin fade. _For Pavak_ , she thought.

Padma had the grace to meet Justin before class and tell him the truth, but she didn't have enough to spare for Parvati and Lavender. _Next year there would be two bracelets. Just two._ And then her parents would say, as they always had done, " _Parvati, could you please do as Padma does?_ "

Padma sighed a ragged breath when she entered the Gryffindor dormitory and saw Lavender and Parvati painting their fingernails.

"Lavender has offered to do your hair in a plait, Padma," Parvati directed.

Padma's face fell. "I thought you'd do it up for me, Parvati."

Lavender waved her wand over her wet nails and shook her head pitifully at Padma. "It would be best down, we thought. Because of your sweet, round face."

Padma looked over at her sister, her eyes wide.

Parvati waved this off. "Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist. You know it's true. Listen," Parvati glanced at Padma's feet that looked ready to turn. "I'll wear mine down, too."

Padma eyes moved carefully between Parvati and Lavender, realizing that it was always going to be like this, with the three of them together. She could survive until the ball. Then she would have her sister to herself, and it would be better. She carefully laid her dress out on a tidily made bed, and her eyes rested on the photograph on its side table. It was of Hermione, Harry and Ron. Ron was smiling, watching Hermione laugh at Harry, who had pulled a face at the photographer. Padma drew in a breath and lowered herself slowly in front of Lavender, who started brushing Padma's hair roughly at once, without hesitation at the tangles met by her brush. Their eyes met in the hand mirror Padma had found on the floor. Lavender noticed the tears forming in Padma's eyes, and she paused with the brush after one last hard tug.

"Oh! Am I hurting you?" Lavender's bored face and tone did not match her words.

Padma's eyes cleared at once. "No. Not at all! I was just letting my mind wander. I was thinking about dancing with Ron. He's so tall." She flicked her eyes at Lavender, and let out a breath she hoped sounded wistful.

She was rewarded with narrowed eyes in the glass. Lavender said, "Seamus says Ron got a package this week that reeked of mothballs. He reckons Ron's going to look ragged."

Padma smiled, happy for a brief moment that she wasn't going with the boy she fancied. This couldn't wound her. "He can look at me, then. And I can look at his dimples."

Lavender stopped her brush in mid-air. "Ron only has one dimple. On the left side." Her eyes widened and she bit her lip, realizing that she'd shown her hand. Padma smiled wider, and looked at Parvati, who for once was silent and watchful.

Padma took this silence and filled it. "Oh, Lavender. Is that your dress? It's beautiful. Hope Seamus keeps his wand in his pocket. That fabric doesn't look flame retardant. Remember, it's _Aguamenti_." Padma waved her hand modeling the wandwork and was rewarded with one last tug to her scalp from Lavender and a wondering look from her sister.

Lavender had been paying more attention to the plait and less to Padma's acting. She smirked as she conjured ammunition. "You know," Lavender said, drawing out the words that were meant to wound, "I do hope you have fun, but I'm afraid Ron might fancy someone else, Padma."

Parvati was jarred out of silence. "Oooh! Who?"

Lavender glanced quickly around the room, settling her gaze on the framed picture Padma had spotted earlier. "Hermione," she blurted.

Parvati snorted. "Ha!" She looked ready to shoot the pairing down with gossipy evidence, but Padma had grown tired of playing with Lavender.

"Well," Padma purred, "I was thinking Harry really wants to be at the ball with my sister, since he asked her - unless you are saying my sister was his last resort? He and Ron had plenty of time to pick anyone they wanted, so I am assuming Ron wants to be with me. Unless you turned him down first?" She raised an eyebrow at Lavender and blinked at her coolly.

Lavender looked at the girls together, and for the first time, she noticed how alike they looked. She rose and turned from them, smoothing the wrinkles from her dress.

As the clock hands turned, the three girls grew too nervous to spare any energy on the sorting of one another. Seamus, with Dean oddly in tow, met Lavender first, and then the two sisters were left.

Parvati turned to her twin. " Do you suppose Ron does fancy Hermione?"

Padma looked startled by such a question being posed to her, for once. "I wouldn't really know."

"Yes, you would," Parvati said, quietly. "You always know. Pavak says I should listen to you more about things like that."

Padma suddenly thought of Justin's face on the day of their snowy walk, his breath catching from the sharpness of surprise and cold, and she hurt. She touched the stack of gold bracelets on her arm, and motioned for her sister to follow her out the portrait hole.


End file.
